7th Congressional Primary all but set for 2026

7th Congressional District is the largest congressional district in the state geographically, covering 20 counties (in whole or part), for a total of 18,787 sq mi. The district contains the following counties: Ashland, Barron, Bayfield, Burnett, St. Croix, Chippewa (partial), Clark, Douglas, Florence, Forest, Iron, Jackson (partial), Juneau (partial), Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon, Monroe (partial), Oneida, Polk, Price, Rusk, Sawyer, Taylor, Vilas, Washburn, and Wood (partial).

I am not endorsing this guy, just saw he announced. I was one of the first follows on his campaign page. He is not even in the Ballotpedia site yet. I have asked for his stance on cannabis reform.

7th Congressional district residents, please help me keep an eye on this guy. His name is Paul Wassgren: https://www.facebook.com/paulwassgrenwi

And a few days later, another Republican, Michael Alfonso announced his candidacy for the 7th Congressional District also.

The 7th is heating up also, it looks like we will have a primary battle in both the Democrats and Republicans. Primary races are where candidates often when this differences (supporting and working on cannabis reform or being a prohibitionist) come to light.

The other Republican is Jessi Ebben. In 2020 Ebben ran in the 3rd Congressional District against Derrick Van Orden. Neither of them commented on cannabis reform to the Shepard Express in 2020, but the news outlet did report Ebben has made supporting agriculture her key promise, which probably includes hemp farming, now federally legal. However, she declared wanting to “model [her] work as a representative and legislator after Rep. Jim Jordan,” who virulently opposed marijuana at every opportunity.

The two Democrats are Fred Clark (trying to return to politics, former assembly rep) and Chris Armstrong has also declared his candidacy for the 7th Congressional District.

Fred Clark was an assembly representative from 2009 until 2015. I started my activism at this time. In 2009, I am going to be hard on Clark for a minute, he sucked! He ran in a recall election against Senator Luther Olsen and during a forum when asked about hemp he took the time instead to talk about his opposition to marijuana reform. This was in 2011, way before the hemp bill and well, I felt betrayed. Technically Luther Olsen sucked during the debate also, stating his opposition to reform despite meeting with us many times, telling us at a Dec 2010 meeting he would not actively oppose legislation and vote YES should a bill come across his desk.

Fred Clark did make up for some of the crap he said and before leaving office in 2014. I believe he has one of the first co-sponsors of Mellissa Agard (Sargent) bill to legalize marijuana in Wisconsin. We are eagerly waiting to see what he promises to do on the federal end.

This instances often remind me of the Q&A, “How can you tell when a politician is lying?” Their lips move. So this campaign season, really get to know your candidates and have multiple conversations with you.

When I find out more, you will all be the first to know! The candidates have been contacted!

Note: Dave’s Redistricting shows 57% Rep and 40.8% Dem